Tag: Invention

I enjoy sending out these messages on a weekly basis. It has become a true passion over the last two years to provide the Community of Competitors with a message to ponder each week.

I am writing this week’s message from a Lake House in Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. It is a Chautauqua based assembly in a rural part of Lebanon County. The Chautauqua movement was based on education and looking inward to grow. The first couple of days here have provided me the opportunity to ponder this question: Are you an imitator or an inventor?

In our society, there is abundance of information sharing, including the sharing of great leadership skills or the secrets of success. (If you have read my past messages, I have shared some of these tips and strategies.) Many people take these pieces and imitate these steps or strategies, while this is not a bad idea; we end up living a life that others have designed for us. This is true in athletics as well, many athletes look to imitate those that compete at the professional level or we imitate those that coach at the professional level.

We must stop looking to imitate others and prepare to INVENT. Inventing our life of a competitor consists of taking all of the information that is available to us and making a conscious determination as to how we will incorporate the advice that is available into our daily life. Invention is lacking because of the amount of information that is available, competitors will blindly follow the new way of doing things. Invention is what has led me to this Community of Competitors newsletter that you are reading. Invention has led me to complete my first book, A Competitor’s Heart: 369 Days of Development. (More news to come on this over the next couple of weeks.)

Invention is there for you in your life. The great thing about invention is that occurs inward and we control invention. Live consciously, in the present moment, and you can invent a life that cannot be imitated.